August is beach time. And while we don't want to crush your summer reading with another full newsletter, we do have two things to share that are worth your time. Both are also highly slimming and beach-friendly.

(1) *** HSK Application for iPhone ***

In early June, we released our Chinese Writer app for iPhone. Many of you tried it and loved it, and we'll be releasing an expanded version with hundreds more characters shortly. In the meantime, we are proud to release a new HSK Test application. A mobile version of the HSK test, this app is loaded with thousands of HSK questions. It's also free for a limited time:

Early adopters have called this "an amazing app". So if you're planning to take the HSK test, be sure to grab it while you can. And please don't forget to rate and review all of our applications on iTunes. Positive feedback encourages us to spend more time on mobile development.

(2) *** Sinica Book Giveaway ***

As you may know, we hosted Guardian correspondent Jonathan Watts on the Sinica podcast almost a month ago. Jonathan is the author of the book "When A Billion Chinese Jump", a great new book on the state of the environment in China.

During his visit, Jonathan was kind enough to sign a copy of his book for us to give away. We will even pay international postage. So if you're interested in reading Jonathan's book, send an email to contest@popupchinese.com with the subject jump. And be quick. Kaiser will pick our winner next Wednesday when we record the next episode of Sinica.

See... we promised we'd keep it short. As always though, our sincere thanks to all of you who've taken out a paid subscription to Popup Chinese and are helping us pay the bills. We're working hard to make learning Chinese easier than ever and are grateful for your ongoing support.